CAMBODIA: CIVIL SOCIETY, POWER AND STALLED DEMOCRACY Stephen P. Marks and Ramya Naraharisetti ‘All power belongs to the people’. (Cambodian Constitution, Article 51, 1993) ‘The space for civil society is steadily shrinking.’ (Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia, 2008) 1.INTRODUCTION This chapter examines the power relations affecting the capacity and agency of four local Cambodian human rights organisations in the context of the painful trajectory of Cambodia since the political transition of 1992-1993. The pivotal moment in this evolution was the 1993 election organized by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) of a Constituent Assembly, which adopted a democratic constitution. Although the transition ended decades of extreme deprivation, foreign intervention, genocide, and civil war, it did not resolve most of the underlying power relations that undermine democratic governance, produce unequal development and lead to human rights violations. In the ensuing eighteen years, a vibrant civil society and a genuine political opposition have struggled for political space in the face of the consolidation of power in one party1, which has frequently engaged in repressive practices. This chapter will explore the proposition that the power-holders in an autocratic regime, operating under a democratic constitution and pressure from civil society and the international community, display rhetorical support for human rights, yet limit the opportunities and the organisational capacities to contest abusive practices and vested interests. To test this hypothesis we explore the organisational capacity and impact of four NGOs working in human rights in a dynamic environment, in which some aspects of democracy are advancing while others are backsliding. In sum, the Cambodian government adheres superficially to human rights as set out in its democratic constitution, while civil society contends with diverse power relations in an effort to make the promise of that constitution a reality. Our findings confirm that ‘the formation of a civil society that is playing an increasing role in national affairs is the single most important achievement of the past 10 years.’2 A team of Cambodian researchers, under the direction of Mey Sovannara, was recruited by the Cambodia Coordination Committee (CCC) in early 2009 to provide information and analysis of the political and institutional context in which civil society organizations and movements advance human rights and pro-poor agendas (‘context mapping’) and specific information regarding selected institutions or movements (‘organizational studies’). Research for the context mapping took place from 5 February to 23 March 2009 on the basis of published and unpublished materials in various languages, as well as personal knowledge by the researchers.3 The second phase of the research took place from 22 September to 12 1 As warned by The Economist, ‘the country is becoming a de facto one-party state with few checks on executive power,’ Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report: Cambodia, London: The Economist, August 2010, p. 4. 2 Cambodia Coordination Committee, Context Mapping Report: Cambodia, 5 February – 23 March 2009, (referred to below as ‘CCC, Context Mapping Report’), p. 17. 3 The results of this phase appear in CCC, Context Mapping Report, available on the project web site. 2 October 2009, and involved site visits to four organisations and review of documents in accordance with a research protocol and ten research questions provided by the project. The four organisations, described in section 2.d. below, were selected to reflect a range of establishment dates, thematic agendas, geographical scope and modes of operation.4 In the next section, we chronicle the historical roots of the present political landscape, the growth of civil society, and the sources and impact of human rights discourse. In the third section, we describe the various types of power constraints on human rights NGOs in Cambodia. The fourth section discusses spaces of engagement and the fifth section examines the building of countervailing power against repression. The sixth section concludes by examining whether and how the transformation of power structures can take place. 2. CONTEXT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND POWER RELATIONS IN CAMBODIA 2. a. Historical and political background The political economy and history of Cambodia provide essential background to understand the constraints and challenges faced by civil society organisations in their experiences of power. Cambodia suffers not only from a recent history of large-scale political violence but also from widespread corruption5 and poverty.6 The potential for civil society to exercise countervailing power is hampered by Cambodia’s rapid economic growth7 and consequent employment opportunities, which encourage support for the government in power. The country is improving with respect to primary education, child mortality, and HIV/AIDS, but is not doing as well in reducing maternal mortality and ensuring environmental sustainability.8 Like many countries in Southeast Asia, Cambodia’s political traditions derive primarily from Eastern culture, the absolute rule of god-kings, and Buddhist beliefs. Attitudes toward human rights and law in general continue to be affected by past traditions dating from the age of the Khmer empire, which ruled from the distant Angkor from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries.9 The king was distant from the people, who rarely saw him. Even in the nineteenth 4 The research results appear in CCC, The Organisational Study: Cambodia - ADHOC, CLEC, LICADHO AND CDPO, 22 September – 12 October 2009 (referred to below as ‘CCC, Organisational Study’), available on the project web site. 5 Cambodia scores 2.1 and ranks 154 out of 178 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2010. Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2010, Berlin, Germany: Transparency International, 2010, p. 3. In 2008, the score was 1.8 and rank 166. The CPI Score ‘relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by businesspeople and country analysts, and ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt)’. 6 25.8% of the population currently lives below the income poverty line of $1.25/day UNDP ranks Cambodia 124 out of 169 on the Human Development Index. UNDP, Human Development Report 2010, New York: Palgrave Macmillan Houndmills, 2010, p. 162. See also the World Bank’s Cambodia Poverty Assessment at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:2 0204883~isCURL:Y~menuPK:435735~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html. 7 GDP annual growth between 1998 and 2008 was almost 10%, interrupted in 2008-09, but is expected to recover in 2010-11 to of 6.7 %. See World Bank country brief for Cambodia at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/CAMBODI AEXTN/0,,menuPK:293865~pagePK:141132~piPK:141107~theSitePK:293856,00.html 8 CCC, Context Mapping Report, p. 18. 9 David Chandler, A History of Cambodia, 2nd ed. (Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 1993). See also Mahesh Kumar Sharan, Political History of Ancient Cambodia, from 1st Cent. A.D. to 15th Cent. A.D. (New Delhi: Vishwavidya Publishers, 1986); Michael Vickery, Kampuchea: Politics, Economics, and Society (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1986). 3 century, villagers had only a vague idea of the king, generally believing him to have the power to influence the weather, to ‘dispense true justice’ and to be ‘the only political source of hope among peasants.’10 Patronage and clientship at the village level remained an essential part of the social structure up to the nineteenth century, as the ‘rectitude and permanence of these relationships had been drummed into people from birth.’11 The social structures of the past and the place of the individual in the Khmer cosmology were adapted under modern ideas of government, but not entirely eliminated by the introduction of constitutions in the mid-twentieth century. In fact, to the surprise of the international community, the drafters of the 1993 Constitution not only referred in the preamble to Cambodia’s ‘grand civilization of a prosperous, powerful, and glorious nation whose prestige radiates like a diamond’ and to ‘the prestige of Angkor civilization,’12 they also restored monarchy. As one constitutional scholar has observed, ‘monarchy has witnessed the most glorious moments of Khmer civilization. Its millennial embedding makes it the principal feature of the political tradition that still prevails among the peasant masses.’13 Beyond these historical and cultural influences, the power structures in Cambodia are deeply affected by French colonialism and twenty years of civil war. Along with a legacy of exploitation and repression for two-thirds of a century (1887-1953), the French brought the first legal system and formal constitution of 1947 defining the functions and powers of national institutions, which were in place when France granted full independence to the Kingdom of Cambodia under King Norodom Sihanouk in 1953. These systems remained until Sihanouk’s overthrow by US-supported forces of Lon Nol in 1970 and the establishment of the Khmer Republic. The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), which later became the Party of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK) and popularly known as the Khmer Rouge, defeated Lon Nol’s forces in 1975 and proceeded to devastate the country, killing some 2 million people by execution, forced labour and starvation,